Tea-Time Budget Update.

As they headed into closed-door caucus on Tuesday afternoon, state House
Democrats were hoping to

emerge with the one thing that’s eluded them so far:
concrete details of the compromise $27.9 billion budget plan that legislative
leaders and Gov. Ed announced nearly two weeks ago.

By late in the day on Tuesday, it appeared that
rank-and-file Democrats were beginning to hear what they wanted to hear. But as
has been the case with everything associated with Pennsylvania’s months-old budget debate,
progress appeared to be coming slowly and, perhaps, a bit painfully.

“A robust debate,” House Majority Whip Bill DeWeese,
D-Greene, quipped, as he exited and then quickly ducked back into the
Democrats’ first-floor caucus room.

“I’d say the mood is one of polite questioning,” was the
description of the day’s proceedings from House Transportation Committee
Chairman Joseph Markosek, D-Allegheny. “It’s an imperfect budget. I’d prefer a
perfect one. But I’ve been around long enough to know that’s not going to
happen.”

Then, this, still later from Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware:
“I think our leaders have listened to us and they’re going to make some
adjustments.”

With 102 votes at stake, the House Democratic caucus has
emerged as a key battleground in the effort to end this year’s budget
stand-off.

But as they have for days now, backbenchers continue to have
questions about the guts of the spending plan.

Among those concerns: a controversial plan to expand natural
gas drilling in state forests; the legalization of table games at
Pennsylvania’s slot machine casinos, and proposals to tax theatre and museum
tickets as well as small games of chance run by private clubs and volunteer
fire companies.

“As this thing goes along, there are still lots of places
where it could be chipped apart,” said Christopher Borick, a political science
professor at MuhlenbergCollege in Allentown.
“There’s pressure points on specific aspects of [the budget]. When you’re
playing with a fairly small margin [of votes] it doesn’t take a lot to make it
fall apart.”

With 99 votes, House Republicans say they plan to vote
against the budget. And Democratic and Republican leaders in the 50-member
Senate insist they have the votes to approve the budget.

That means that only a handful of House Democrats would have
to break from their party to send the budget down to defeat.

And as work continues on the budget’s fine print, some
political observers are wondering whether legislative leaders and Rendell will
be able to secure those votes and meet a self-imposed Sunday deadline to
approve the 2009-2010 spending plan.

As of Tuesday afternoon, House Democratic leaders appeared
confident that their coalition would hold. Still, “there are a lot of moving
pieces … and it will take a lot of hard work to finalize it,” Brett Marcy, a
spokesman for House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Luzerene, acknowledged.